Jesus Wants the Rose

Matt found this wonderfu clip a few weeks back and I just now thought to post it. Please take minute to watch this: Matt Chandler Clip.
It is well worth the three and a half minutes it takes.

Pudding, Phrases, Persistance and Plights

While at my nieces Kindergarten graduation this week (why do K5's have a graduation ceremony anyway? It's kindergarten. You learn letters, eat snacks and make crafts), O had to go potty. I quickly snatched him up out of the pew and jogged with him to the potty. He informed me that he didn't want help and that he could "do it myself". I left him to it and decided to take advantage of the potty break myself. I walked back over to his stall and found him perched, rather precariously, on the toilet. As I reached to help him, he fell in. I started laughing, he did not. I grabbed him and placed him on the floor. I noticed his poor shirt was soaked in the back...he didn't seem to mind. It then took me a moment to figure out where the lovely "floral" smell was coming from. It was O. There was a hanging toilet bowl thing in the bowl and he must have landed on it. It was fun to take him back into the ceremony soaking wet and reeking of toilet bowl freshener.

S, is still having a difficult time adjusting to...well, life really. Everything seems to be a huge ordeal. Life has seemingly dealt him a bad hand and he's quite verbal about it. If this is six, what will sixteen be like?!? Please, if you know, don't tell me!!
The other day, his cousins were over visiting and I heard yelling and screaming. This is not an unusual event for this batch of cousins. We spend a ton of time together and they tend to behave more like brothers and sisters, than cousins. S comes storming up the stairs and says to my husband:
S: "Dad, wheres your phone. I need it now"
M: "What do you need my phone for?"
S: "I'm calling the adoption place to come and get me"

My first response was: "Let me look up the number for you", but I refrained.

Today, O was eating chocolate pudding (yes, I'm sure it was chocolate pudding). I gave him a spoon and let him have at it. I looked over after a minute or so to see him covered in pudding. I had given him a spoon and reminded him to use it. O's response was: "No poon, eat with hands", and he went back to it. None of this would have been a huge deal had I not JUST gotten him dressed for the day.

M, bless his sweet, unique little heart, is still stuck in the Transformers costume phase. He is persistent too. I've gotten him out clothes daily, encouraged him to wear them, even offered to help him change. He insists that he's fine in his Optimus Prime suit and will just wear that. He has even made a small hole in the suit so his insulin pump can fit through. That way he doesn't have to take it all they way off to get dosed. He has it all worked out. Today, he spilled on it. He told me that was ok, because tonight at bedtime he would just take it off so i could wash it. I thought that meant we could wear something else tomorrow... He corrected my thinking and said...that way it will be all clean for me to wear tomorrow. Maybe, it won't be clean in time. This suit, is the second one. Grandma, bought him a new one this week at a yard sale...thanks grandma. Thankfully, he's been leaving the mask at home - although he told me he was going to wear it on our trip to Kroger for milk later.

Just a few moments in our life!

MUST SEE

If you have children, know children, or were once a child you must watch this:

CLICK HERE

It is hysterical and quite close to the truth...I think I've had similar conversations with my own children!

Picture This

The doors in our home have great woodwork. It's an older home and when my brother in law started redoing the house, he tried to keep with the integrity of the home. This woodwork is gorgeous, but it can be a pain, as it has tiny pieces and corners that are not child friendly and have broken more than once.

Our most recent breakage was a piece of wood trim from the boys door. It has come off due to the relentless door slamming it has received in the last few months. Our oldest and then middle son have taken to slamming doors in protest. This action caused the piece of trim to first come loose and then finally come off.

I have placed the trim in the living room corner, as a constant reminder to my dear husband to fix it. I can do many things and have been known to fix multiple things in this house...woodwork is not my specialty though. Give me a clogged drain or furniture to move and I'm on it. Hammers and I don't get along all that well though.

Today I was getting ready for the day. I am drying my hair and brushing my teeth in the bathroom. I look out to see a piece of wood trim, perched rather haphazardly across my living room table (a hope chest my mom gave me).

I lean out the bathroom door and ask M to please put that back and to be careful with it. He stops for a minute and says "why"? I answer him with the obvious answer - I don't want it broken and their are sharp nails sticking out of it.

M stops briefly and then responds back: "Oh, don't worry about those nails mom, I turned the wood over so they are facing down toward the table and not up"....NICE!

I told him to immediately put it back...thankfully, he obliged and my table suffered no harm. It made perfect sense to him though. It's safe to put the nails facing down ON the table....sheesh.

The other day, S, was unhappy with a decision that we made for him. He told us: "Whoa...HOLD THE PHONE". I'm often afraid of what his teen years have in store for us!

O has become our little chatter box. I knew that day would come. He was slow to talk, but now if chatting up a storm. His recent fascination is with my earrings. He calls them "rings". The other day, he told me to take his ears off and put his ears with rings on. We then had a conversation about how "rings" are for mommy's ears, not for little boys ears. He seemed ok with that explanation...at least for now. I'm sure that won't be the first conversation I have with my boys regarding earrings - at least for now, it's a fight I can win!

Matt was praying with the boys the other night before bed. M stopped him and said: "Who do we pray to again dad?"...Matt said, we have failed miserably!!

O also told me to take his ears off because they hurt.

While at a yard sale this week, M, found a great treasure. A full bag of plastic Sponge Bob toys that came in Burger King Happy Meals. He begged daily to go to Burger King during that shameless promotion that they did. We only obliged twice. Today, he hit the jackpot. He found a bag of roughly 6 of them for a dollar. My mom tried to convince him to pick something else and she would give him the extra money. He said "no thanks" and happily bought his toys. He said he couldn't wait to call his daddy and tell him about his buy. He proclaimed quite loudly, "This is such a great deal" and skipped down the sidewalk.

Stolen

I stole this video from my husbands blog. He asked me for three days to watch it and I just kept forgetting. I watched it tonight and am so glad I did!

I love it - especially the part about church dress code! Take a minute to watch!!

Not Me Monday

This weeks installment of Not Me Monday is here..

You can read lots of other not me moments at MckMamma's blog. I love reading some of them and finding other people who NEVER do awkward things...just like me!

I definitely did not read an article to my husband and my mom this week about a resurgence of bed bugs in the US. My husband did not start itching and I didn't start laughing at him and the power of suggestion.

I most certainly did not use an adult incontinence product in place of a feminine hygiene product this week...and I most certainly am not blogging about it.

I did not take 930 pictures in an hour. I know that editing that many photos would take forever.

I also didn't let my three year old pee in a McDonald's cup in the grocery store parking lot. I would never allow my young child to do that because I know that doing so would cause said child to ask to pee in a cup any chance they got.

I was not told to look out the window this week, by our pastor and his wife, who also happen to be dear friends of ours. I did not look out the window to see my son, standing as naked as a jay bird, peeing in a puddle, in the church parking lot no less. My child knows better....

I certainly did not look, moments later, and see my son "swimming" in the puddle he just peed in. I also did not listen as my friends roared with laughter. I definitely didn't see my two older sons watching the whole event while saying nothing....

Just a few of my not me moments...feel free to share your own!

Tat2's for Grandma

We really didn't have a ton of money to spend for Mother's Day this year, so I thought of something cheap to do for the grandma's. I am thrilled with how the pictures turned out and the grandma's LOVED the pictures.

I posted the best of the bunch...hope you enjoy it too!

Mother's Day Menu

My youngest sister Mary, also got to celebrate Mother's Day today. We kept telling her that she is absolutely a mother now and to enjoy the celebration with us! I am so excited to meet baby Leah or Rory

This is my momma and all her kiddies. My brother hasn't been home in a while. It was nice to snap a pic with all of us together with mom.

The boys made me breakfast in bed this morning. I was awoken by three sweet little voices, yelling quite loudly, "Happy Mother's Day"!! It made me smile. They all made me sweet cards and Matt wrote me an incredibly sweet note.

S gave me a piece of construction paper that he had drawn lines on and told me to place my order. He handed me a poster marker and I glanced at the clock and at Matt to see what I should order. I placed a simpler order:

Raisin toast with butter
Diet Dr. Pepper AND
My SSNRI..can't forget the anti depressant on Mother's Day!

The boys delivered my breakfast with a smile on their face - all except the medication....my sweet husband brought that with a smile.

We had a full day, complete with food, family and friends - and even a little gardening in between.

I am so thankful for my children and for my husband - both of whom make it possible for me to celebrate this Holiday! I praise the Lord for making my dreams of motherhood come true. There was a time, when I thought that celebrating Mother's Day, as a mother, wouldn't happen. Thankfully, the Lord saw fit to bless us with three wonderful sons.

Just Ask

If you wanted more attention for Mother's Day, all you had to do is ask...is what I said to my mom as they wheeled her out of the ambulance at 12:45 this morning. She laughed, in between bouts of dry heaving.

I hate when my mom is sick. She's as tough as nails and isn't one to complain when she doesn't feel good. She rarely gets sick, so when my sister called and said mom wanted me to come right over, she didn't feel right, I immediately got dressed and ran out the door to her house...I literally ran. Thankfully, she lives across the street, because I am far too fat and way to out of shape to run any farther. My run was further encouraged by the ambulance that pulled in before me.

I was quite concerned by this point and ran in to see my mom heaving in a trash can and as white as a sheet. I beat the EMS in by a few minutes and asked my mom what was going on. She told me how she was feeling and I quickly had her diagnosed with vertigo and a panic attack.

She's had bouts of vertigo before and I suffer from it myself at times, but nothing as severe as my mom experiences. Unfortunately, her father died of a heart attack at 40 years of age and that causes extra concern for all of us. Anytime, something out of the ordinary comes up, we want to get her checked out.

My dad has been gone on a week long preaching trip and my mom was watching one of my nieces over night. Thankfully, one of my sisters was staying the night and the other had just gotten home from a rehearsal dinner.

We rode to the ER...which was an interesting ride. My sons were horribly jealous that I got to ride in an ambulance. I assured them it wasn't as much fun as they thought.... My poor mom got sick when ever they made her move. She stood up and got sick, rolled her over, she got sick...it was so sad.

They pumped her full of fluids - another thing I am always on her for. She doesn't drink enough. Gave her some Antivert and the wonder drug Zofran (I must admit I was jealous that she got it IV push, I would have killed for Zofran through an IV when I was pregnant with M. I'd will myself not to throw those things up before they dissolved). She was feeling much better within the hour and was laughing and joking. She still looked horrendous and was in no shape to run a marathon, but the room was no longer moving and she hadn't thrown up in a while.

We were glad to hear that all of her test results came back good and that it was indeed a vertigo flare up. She is feeling much better today and rested all day.

I thank the Lord for a mom that is healthy and loving. She is not just my momma, she's my dearest friend. She was merely a child herself when I was born, but together she and my dad overcame insurmountable odds and raised 5 children.

I am going to have to remind her though that tomorrow is all about me, because she got all the attention this weekend!

Words of "Wisdom"

Profound truths:
Sometimes all you can do is the next right thing.
It is what it is.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.
Life is what happens while we are making other plans.

Silly, but true:
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
Six of one, half dozen of the other (my husband HATES this one).
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

My Mamaw's words of wisdom:
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.
Everything after but, is bulls***...you can fill in the rest! I don't use this quote often, but find it contains quite a bit of truth!


Just a few words of "wisdom" - none of which are original to me.

My Model

My Little Writer

The sweet boy, whose handsome face you see, wrote two things in his journal at school that made my heart glad. We've been going through such a rough spot with him lately and reading his journal entries made it seem a zillion times better!

One day he wrote the following(I have included my edits for your reading ease, as not everyone speaks/understands First Grade English):
Friends should be nice, be friendly, and be kind to one another. Because God likes that. That is the rule of life!

My child is a bright little man. It made me so proud to read it and I loved his teachers comment: "I like how you wrote that!".

His next post and his teacher's comment.....I was beaming folks and so thrilled with the classrooms that S has been placed in these last two years. We've never made a request, but we have prayed each year that he is placed in the right class. The Lord has answered our prayers and so far, his two teachers have both been believers!

Journal Entry 2

In the sky, I see Jesus. He is on my side. He loves me so much.

His teachers response was simply this:"He sure does love you so much!!"

Seriously, could it get any better!?!

Not Me Monday

I love the chance to have a mini confessional each week and so do all the other folks over at MckMamma's blog carnival! Read mine and then check the rest out! It's good for a laugh.


I am not typing this Not Me, post on Sunday night, because I'm afraid I'll forget it all by tomorrow. I am not that forgetful.

I did not pee in a bottle this week, well attempt to pee in a bottle, when I arrived at a baseball game to take pictures for a friend and the bathrooms were shut down.

I most certainly DID NOT pee all over myself when my aim was just a little bit off. I always have good aim and am a pro at peeing in bottles.

I definitely did not lie to my friend when I got there and tell her that I spilled on my pants so that she didn't think I was totally disgusting...hmmm, I wonder if she reads this blog.

I certainly didn't burn two pans of nachos and a whole thing of bean dip last Sunday, when I placed my oven on "timer" mode, instead of "cook time". I am a wonderful chef and never make mistakes like that.

I did not eat an entire bag of Lime tortilla chips this weekend. I am not addicted to them and the good Lord knows I don't need the fat!

I also did not, not do laundry for three days. It did not cause my children to have to ask me, on more than one occasion, if they had clean underwear or socks. They always have clean clothes, folded, ironed and placed in their drawers.

Let me know what you didn't do this week!